To provide the greatest flexibility in communicating with 3rd party software, IGSS provides an entirely open architecture. By utilizing established standards, you save time and reduce the risk of potential errors. The following set of standards is fully supported by the IGSS package:

OPC (OLE for Process Control) is supported by IGSS. The OPC Data interface versions 1 and 2 are supported on the OPC server side. This presents a truly flexible solution for 3rd party maintenance and batch applications to interface easily to IGSS’ data. IGSS also supports the OPC client-side with its own OPC communications driver, which is able to establish connections to 3rd party OPC servers.

ActiveX is a Microsoft standard supported by IGSS. ActiveX components can be used to represent process components graphically in the diagrams and IGSS is fully compatible for integrating these 3rd party control components.

ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity), which is also developed by Microsoft, is a database programming interface providing a common language for Windows applications to access databases in a network. In IGSS, the ODBC interface is an integrated feature and enables access to IGSS configuration data and offline process information, such as alarms, reduced or historical process information via SQL. Using OBDC, IGSS objects can be created and edited outside IGSS and afterward imported into the relevant process diagram.

VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) is a Microsoft-developed, object-oriented event-driven programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) embedded in many popular Microsoft applications such as Word, Excel and Access. IGSS contains an integrated VBA editor, enabling VBA programming from within IGSS for developing customized control and monitoring routines. VBA’s versatility and wide acceptance open up whole new scenarios for customizing IGSS configurations down to the smallest detail.

JET is the database engine used by MS Access. IGSS allows you to use JET to access the native, relational data files (*.mdb) that are associated with the given configuration. File access is possible even without MS Access being installed as JET only requires an ODBC interface for the database product you are using. The most common usage of the JET interface is to create and translate texts within the IGSS configuration such as Alarm texts.

Automation provides a window towards real-time IGSS process data. The IGSS Automation interface enables access to IGSS object properties, atom (I/O) values, alarm and event information as well as to general properties of the IGSS configuration. Access to IGSS process data through Automation is possible for all external programs and languages that have Automation or COM+ (Component Object Model) capabilities. This includes Visual Basic (VB), C/C++, and all products implementing VBA as a macro language.

OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) provides an interface to any other OLE-compatible application. OLE can be used to enable access to registered external OLE objects from within IGSS, either by embedding the OLE object in the process diagram or inserting links to the OLE object. Using OLE, operators can call up external or 3rd party OLE applications from one central point in the IGSS SCADA configuration without ever having to leave the IGSS software.